Lawyers in Debt

Published: September 7, 1999

To the Editor:

I take issue with Howard A. Heffron's Aug. 31 letter chastising the Department of Justice lawyers who are seeking overtime pay.

I am sure that even with the addition of overtime pay, these lawyers will not make salaries on par with their colleagues in the private sector. However, overtime pay may make it easier for them to manage the staggering amount of law school debt that the vast majority of them likely carry.

It is not uncommon for recent law school graduates to have $100,000 in educational debt.

Even in the private sector, the payments to service such debt -- often more than $1,000 a month -- are hard to make.

The real issue is not a few dollars in overtime pay, but the spiraling cost of higher education. One shouldn't have to incur the equivalent of a mortgage on a nice house to earn a law degree.